Of the 114 officers, 55 previously had desk jobs and 59 will be moved from special units. They are being deployed to every police district in the city.

The Fraternal Order of Police has said in the past the city needs to hire more officers instead of shifting them around. But McCarthy called the move "efficient management."

"My overwhelming feeling is really simple," McCarthy said Thursday. "I cannot possibly ask for one more police officer to be hired until such time as I am sure that every resource in this agency is being used to 100 percent capacity focused on the things we need to do."

But FOP president Mike Shields says the administration is using the redeployment as a distraction from the need to hire more officers. He called the swap "smoke and mirrors."

"This is a big shell game," Shields said. "There are not 881 officers that were sitting behind a desk and magically they're out on the street. These officers have already been out on the street."

McCarthy said he wouldn't play "he said, she said" with the union.

The extra manpower brings the total number of officers redeployed to 881. Chicago has seen an overall 20 percent reduction in crime for August and the first two weeks of September compared to the same period in 2010, McCarthy said.